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Drones Invade Hollywood

Drones are being used to film everything from movies to sports to commercials—but safety concerns remain.

Drones are enabling filmmakers experiment with aerial cinematography in ways not possible before. From action sports to music videos, check out footage captured with the help of drones. Photo: Vimeo.com/RobertMcIntosh

Four actors jump between rooftops and sprint through sheets drying on clotheslines while a camera tracks them from above, hovering close enough to see their faces. The sequence, filmed in Bogotá for the coming Netflix drug-war series, “Narcos,” was too intimate to capture by helicopter and too intricate to choreograph easily from the ground.

Cue the drone.

On the day of the shoot, a small unmanned aircraft, propellers spinning...